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What’s being described as a world-class workshop/presentation will be held in Cornwall next month.

It’s the first Understanding and Treating Hoarding Disorder workshop, at the Best Western Parkway Inn & Conference Centre, March 5-6.

The event will feature Randy O. Frost, who received his doctorate from the University of Kansas in 1977 and is the Harold and Elsa Siipola Israel Professor of Psychology at Smith College in Northampton, Mass.

“He’s one of the leading experts in the world on hoarding disorder,” said Mark Snelgrove, intensive case manager with the Canadian Mental Health Association Champlain East, and chair of the SDG Hoarding Coalition that’s been in existence for five years and includes over 20 member agencies.

Frost has published over 160 scientific articles and book chapters on hoarding and related topics, and in 2012 received the Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in innovation, treatment and research in the field of hoarding and cluttering by the Mental Health Association of San Francisco.

The Mayo Clinic defines hoarding disorder as a persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions because of a perceived need to save them, and that a person with hoarding disorder experiences distress at the thought of getting rid of the items, with excessive accumulation of items – regardless of actual value – occurring. It says hoarding disorder ranges from mild to severe, and in the most extreme cases it can seriously affect functioning on a daily basis.

The CMHA Champlain East and SDG Hoarding Coalition are presenting the event in partnership with the city, which Snelgrove said is providing funding for the entire program through the Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative.

“It’s a three-year funding program that they’re providing at this point, which speaks to how important the service is and how needed it is,” said Snelgrove, noting about five percent of the population has the disorder.

“The (goal) is to be able to do this (event) annually, with the idea of increasing skills for responders (including home care workers, police officers, firefighters and paramedics), and increasing knowledge for the public.”

Training will include an overview of hoarding disorders and methods of assessment, detailed intervention strategies including motivational enhancement, skills training, cognitive and behavioural methods in relation to treating hoard disorders. Treatment can be challenging, because people with the disorder may not see it as a problem. But, intensive treatment can help people to better understand how their beliefs and behaviours can be changed so they can live safer, more enjoyable lives.

The disorder often results in cramped living conditions, homes filled to capacity, with only narrow pathways winding through stacks of clutter.

Often, areas that should always be accessible, items like countertops, desks, stairways and stoves, are piled with stuff, and when there’s no more room inside, the clutter can spread to the garage, yard, other storage facilities and even into vehicles.

The March 5-6 presentation/workshop is from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day. The registration cost is $50, and it includes two days of training, meals and refreshments.

There’ll be a maximum of 200 participants, with a registration deadline of Feb. 16.